Dusk, I don't want to be rude; but did you actually play Bioshock? Not only was it 100% linear and railroaded, but it went so far as to rub that fact in your face. The game is completely story driven- you do one thing, and then it tells you what to do next. Apart from one instance in an early level (where the game is making sure you have the key plasmids) it doesn't even leave you to figure things out for yourself. You can go back to completed levels and just run around fighting the respawned enemies, but that doesn't-a-sandbox-make.

[spoliers over]

It's certainly a very immersive game, but not an RPG in any way. You have no ownership of the character. You get a choice of a few different special powers, but even then, you can 'respec' your character at any time. I think the only reason that any of us are even comparing it with an RPG is, apart from the fact that's a 'Shock Game', is because we're so starved of good RPGs, that we're stretching.

Your point seemed to be that Bioshock did a lot of things that RPGs 'should' be doing, and I'll agree inasmuch as Bioshock did give me a lot of the things that I usually get from a solid RPG. Unfortunately it didn't give them to me in an RPG package. If it had, it would almost surely be my favorite game ever. I'm nt especially sad about what might have been though, because it was still a great game in its own right.